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Tesla Model S Software Updates Lets Car Park Itself With No One Inside It (bgr.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bwa-ha-ha dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a link to this article at Boy Genius Report about a software upgrade now hitting Tesla owners, which begins: Tesla earlier today began pushing out version 7.1 of its software to Model S and Model X owners and, suffice it to say, it's a doozy of a software update. While we'll get to the full changelog shortly, we first wanted to highlight a feature called Summon which enables users to park their cars without having to be inside it. Conversely, it also lets Tesla owners summon their cars that already happen to be parked.

7 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Beta by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The feature is in Beta. Thats what I want: Beta software in my car. Here is a link to the release notes: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com...

  2. It has begun! by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder who'll get in trouble when the car has an accident while auto-parking?

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re: It has begun! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, the switches had a fault where an undocumented position existed, outside of ACC, LOCK, RUN, and START. That position was called "RUN with airbags and warning systems disabled". It was accessible through wear of the weak spring inside the cylinder, and a light tap from a driver's knee.

      As you can imagine, survivability during a head-on collision is markedly reduced when the car enters this mode, and this mode occurred when the driver was unlucky enough to bump the key while jostling during a collision.

  3. Just waiting for the malware... by wierd_w · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm just waiting for the malware to hit these smart cars.

    Just a few possibly lucrative scams that could manifest in due time:

    Ransomware. "Pay us OMGWTFBBQ! dollars, or never drive your expensive status symbol ever again! We've encrypted the entire drive control computer's filesystem, so pay up."

    Spyware: "Know where your spouse is REALLY going during the day! Our special software runs silently on smart cars to let you know exactly where and how long it has been running! Easy integration with our smartphone app!"

    Law enforcement bullshit: "You say you were driving under the speed limit, but your car alerted us to the contrary. Enjoy your automated speeding ticket."

    Adware: "Hello commuter! It looks like you are getting low on gas! Why not try Speedy's Gas and Go?" (Played loudly over the in-car speaker system, via coopted media control system., with no option to turn down the volume or stop the advert(s).)

    And of course, the various kinds of dangerous hacker things--

    Like:

    "Drive your expensive smart car on remote control from a smart phone! (we wont be liable for damages or loss of life/injury from doing this.)"

    Or--

    Government black ops: "We caused his car to lock the user controls, and autodrove him off the side of an unfinished highway ramp. We made it look like he was driving while drunk."

    I dont want to sound like a Luddite here, but really-- Not everything needs to be "Smart."

  4. That's not really "parking" by hawguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The video shows the car moving up to 39 feet in a straight line to get out of a tight garage. That's not really "parking". A "real" autopark would be if I could get out of the car at the door to my office, then send the car to go park itself in the lot.

  5. In Seattle .... by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... we could just get out of our cars and have them drive endlessly around the block looking for a parking space.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:In Seattle .... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In Seattle they outlaw human driven cars from downtown.